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Number 



Eighteen, 



Edmund Spenser 



BY 

DANIEL WISE, T>.T>. 






?°3/o fZ 






NEW YORK: 
PHILLIPS & HUNT 

CINCINNATI: 

WALDEN & STOWE 

l88 3 . 






The "Home College Series" will contain one hundred short papers on 
a wide range of subjects — biographical, historical, scientific, literary, domes- 
tic, political, and religious. Indeed, the religious tone will characterize all 
of them. They are written for every body — for all whose leisure is limited, 
but who desire to use the minutes for the enrichment of life. 

These papers contain seeds from the best gardens in all the world of 
human knowledge, and if dropped wisely into good soil, will bring forth 
harvests of beauty and value. 

They are for the young — especially for young people (and older people, 
too) who are out of the schools, who are full of "business" and "cares," 
who are in danger of reading nothing, or of reading a sensational literature 
that is worse than nothing. 

One of these papers a week read over and over, thought and talked about 
at "odd times," will give in one year a vast fund of infprmation, an intel- 
lectual quickening, worth even more than the mere knowledge acquired, a 
taste for solid reading, many hours of simple and wholesome pleasure, and 
ability to talk intelligently and helpfully to one's friends. 

Pastors may organize " Home College " classes, or " Lyceum Reading 
Unions," or "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circles," and help the 
young people to read and think and talk and live to worthier purpose. 

A young man may have his own little " college " all by himself, read this 
series of tracts one after the other, (there will soon be one hundred of them 
ready,) examine himself on them by the " Thought-Outline to Help the Mem- 
ory," and thus gain knowledge, and, wh£,t is better, a love of knowledge. 

And what a young man may do in this respect, a young woman, and both 

old men and old women, may do. 

J. H. Vincent. 

New Yokk, Jan., 18S3. 



Copyright, 1S83, by Phillips & Hunt, New York. 



Pg nu College Series. Hitmbcr (grgbteeiT.' 
EDMUND SPENSER. 



The; irony of Fame has an illustration in the fact that 
while the date and birthplace of innumerable Hodges and 
Robins, about whom the great world does not care a groat, 
are carefully preserved in parish records and on church-yard 
tombstones, the veil of uncertainty covers the time when 
Edmund Spenser, England's first really great poet, entered 
the world. After much investigation, however, his latest 
biographers accept 1552 as his birth-year. Respecting the 
^lace where he was born, Spenser, in a bridal ode written in 
1596, says : 

" Merry London, my most kindly nurse, 
That to me gave this life's first native source, 
Though from another place I take my name, 
A house of ancient fame." 

From these lines it is inferred, with a fair degree of cer- 
tainty, that London was the place of his birth, and that his 
father belonged to an aristocratic family, of which one 
branch is known to have had its home in Lancashire, and 
the other — which spelled its name Spencer — at Althorpe, 
near Northampton. His kinship with the latter he claimed 
in some of his minor poems, in which, writing of three 
daughters of Sir John Spencer, he said : 

"The sisters three, 
The honor of that noble family 
Of which L, meanest, boast myself to be." 

Of his father's position in life nothing is known. The 

only record concerning his mother is in a poem, in which, 

after stating that her name was Elizabeth — the same as his 

wife's — he calls her 

"My love, my life's best ornament, 
By whom my spirit out of dust was raised." 



EDMUND SPENSER. 



That his parents were poor, though not abjectly so, is 
made tolerably certain by the fact that Spenser's name is 
found at the head of a list of six "poor scholars" belonging 
to a grammar school then recently established by the Mer- 
chant Tailors' Company of London. To each of these "poor 
scholars " two yards of cloth were given by the executors 
of a bountiful Londoner named Robert Newell, portions of 
whose estate were liberally bestowed on large numbers 
of needy persons and poor scholars of the grammar schools 
in the city. It also appears that when Spenser was ad- 
mitted to Cambridge University as a sizar, or serving-clerk, 
at Pembroke Hall, he was the recipient of a small gift of 
money from the same source. He was then sixteen or sev- 
enteen years old, and his being both a sizar and the recipi- 
ent of charity, proves at least the comparative poverty of 
his parents. Of his character and scholarship at that time 
very little is positively known. 

It appears, however, that the Dean of St. Paul's, who was 
the brother of the deceased Robert Newell, and Bishop 
Grindal, became Spenser's patrons while he was at the uni- 
versity. He also won the friendship of one Gabriel Harvey, 
a learned man and a fellow of the college. It is also almost 
certain that, shortly after entering Cambridge, he contrib- 
uted some admirable translations from Petrarch to an odd 
"little treatise" called the "Theater of Worldlings," pub- 
lished by a refugee Flemish physician from Antwerp. It 
is thought by his biographers that his knowledge of the 
classics, though not accurate, was quite extensive. His 
translations from Petrarch, having been made from Marot, 
a French writer, may be taken as proof that he was familiar 
at that period, not with the Italian, but with the French 
language. Their excellence further proves that, though a 
mere youth, his poetical genius, with little to inspire it, ex- 
cept the classics and the then almost obsolete poems of old 
Chaucer, was spontaneously pluming its wings for a loftier 



EDMUND SPENSER. 



flight than had been taken by any preceding English poet. 
From these few facts it is safe to infer that, during his col- 
lege career, Spenser's moral qualities were such as to win 
the confidence of his superiors, and that his intellectual abil- 
ities and scholarship were such as to give promise of his 
future celebrity. Had he been either a dissolute idler, or a 
dullard, such judges of men as Newell, Grindal, and Har- 
vey would not have been likely to give him either support 
or friendship. 

Spenser took his Bachelor's degree in 1573, and proceeded 
to that of Master of Arts in 1576, when he was twenty-four 
years old. He then bade adieu to his university life, and 
went into Lancashire to reside, as is supposed, with some 
of his relatives. But whether he was entertained by some 
of them as a welcome guest, or employed as a tutor, is not 
known, though the latter supposition is not improbable. It 
is, however, made certain by his first poem, "The Shepherd's 
Calendar," that shortly after his arrival in Lancashire his 
poetic genius was quickened into activity by means of his 
becoming acquainted with a young lady whose beauty he 
celebrates, both in the above-named poem and in his " Fairy 
Queen," under the name of Rosalind. It is supposed that 
she was related to the wife of Sir Erasmus Dryden, grand- 
father of John Dryden. In his "Shepherd's Calendar," Spen- 
ser complains that she treated his " rural music" with scorn, 
and laughed at the songs with which he praised her. In his 
" Fairy Queen " he describes her in the following spirited 
lines : 

" She was a lady of great dignity, 

And lifted up to honorable place, 
Famous through all the land of Faerie ; 

Though of mean parentage and kindred base, 

Yet decked with wondrous gifts of nature's grace, 
That all men did her person much admire, 

And praise the feature of her goodly face, 
The beams whereof did kindle love's bright Are 
In the hearts of many a knight and many a gentle pquire." 



EDMUND SPENSER. 



Whether this scornful lady was a capricious coquette, 
disposed to trifle with the young poet's feelings, or whether 
she was too proud to permit her affections to fasten on a 
man without either property or prospects, or whether she 
really loved him, but disciplined her affection by a shrewd 
common sense that taught her the unwisdom of a mar- 
riage with pride and penury, cannot now be told. There 
is, however, little room for doubting either the reality or 
depth of the poet's regard for her. His poems prove 
that his affection for her was lifelong, and it stands insep- 
arably related both to the awakening and direction of his 
poetic genius.- It led him to make love the principal 
theme of his poems, not impure, but pure conjugal love 
and its association with all the virtues which are the orna- 
ments of human nature. For this reason it is impossible to 
omit the name of Rosalind from any intelligent record of the 
poet's life. 

There were, however, other and higher influences touch- 
ing and influencing Spenser's half-awakened genius. The 
spirit of the nge was one of intense activity. Great events 
were passing before the public eye. The north of England 
had been the scene of a rebellion in the interest of Roman- 
ism, which Elizabeth had promptly suppressed by giving 
the rebels, as she had promised to do, " such a breakfast as 
never was in the North before." A stupid papal bull had 
pronounced Elizabeth a deposed queen ; religious wars had 
disturbed the peace of France; the massacres on St. Bar- 
tholomew's Day had filled the Protestant mind of England 
with horror ; the universities had been kept astir by po- 
lemical disputations between ultra and moderate Puritan- 
ism; and literary men were warmly discussing the necessity 
of bringing English poetry into conformity with the laws 
of classical versification. These events and strifes passing 
before our poet's eye during his school and college life, 
doubtless had immense influence over his imagination and 



EDMUND SPENSER. 



contributed largely to the materials out of which his poems 
were subsequently constructed. 

During the three years he spent in Lancashire, Spenser 
appears to have been busy with his "Shepherd's Calendar" 
and'some minor poems. In 1579 by some means, possibly 
through the recommendation of his friend Harvey, be was 
made acquainted with the distinguished Sir Philip Sidney, 
and his courtly uncle, Lord Leicester, into whose household 
he was now received. Sidney recognized Spenser's superior 
mental qualities, made him more or less a companion, and 
impressed his own noble and beautiful character on his 
mind. " Spenser saw and learned in him what was then the 
highest type of the finished gentleman." Leicester also took 
an interest in the poet's welfare, employed him to do various 
political services, encouraged him to hope for preferment at 
court, and at one time thought of sending him to France and 
Italy on some errand connected probably with Queen Eliz- 
abeth's coquettish relations to the Duke- D'Alencon with 
whom, it was thought by some, she contemplated marriage. 

But Spenser did not go abroad. Leicester kept him other- 
wise employed. His 'time was passed partly at Penshurst, 
once the seat of the Saxon Kings of Kent, amid scenery 
which must have furnished many beautiful images to his act- 
ive imagination. Other portions of his time were spent in 
London, where the magnificence of Elizabeth's court circle 
charmed his poetic mind, and where it is not improbable, as 
appears in his correspondence with Harvey, he did not 
wholly escape the blandishments of men and women who 
made pleasure the chief end of life. 

In December, 15 SO, Spenser being then about twenty- 
eight years old, his maiden poem, the "Shepherd's Calendar," 
was given to the w r orld. It was published anonymously 
with an introductory epistle by Mr. Edward Kirke, one of 
his fellow-students at Cambridge, with whom he had formed 
a close friendship. Mr. Kirke praises the poem very highly 



EDM I r NB SPENSER. 



and predicts its success very positively. He pronounces its 
author, "this one new poet; " he ranks him with " that good 
old poet," Chaucer, " the lodestar of our language ; " he af- 
firms that in the poem its author has " labored to restore as to 
their rightful heritage, such good and natural English words 
as have been a long time out of use, or almost clean dis- 
inherited, which is the only course that our mother tongue, 
which truly of itself is both full enough for prose and stately 
enough for verse, hath long time been counted most bare 
and barren of both." 

The poem itself consisted of twelve compositions, one for 
each month of the year, but having " no internal connection, 
and differing in subject-matter, character and excellence." 
Some are serious, others burlesque. Some are amatory, others 
are eulogies on his friend Grindal, on the queen "faire Eliza," 
and on her favorite, Leicester, " the worthy whom she loveth 
best." Others again are fables, narratives and translations. 
All are artificial, even fantastical, because following a fashion 
then popular and approved by Sidney, the brilliant author of 
the Acadia, whose judgment was law at that time in the 
literary world, Spenser, instead of giving natural expression 
to his thoughts, puts them into the mouths of fictitious 
Goatherds, Shepherds, and others bearing such clownish 
names as Colin Clout, for Spenser himself; Hobbinol, for his 
friend Gabriel Harvey; Cuddier, for Mr. Kirke, etc. Besides 
these rustic names he uses some romantic ones, others class- 
ical, and some that are anagrams, as Algrind, which stands 
for his patron archbishop Grindal. One effect of this method 
is a singular incongruity between these supposed clowns and 
their utterances. The Goatherd and the Shepherd are made 
to speak thoughts, not appropriate to their condition, but to 
scholars, statesmen, and poets. 

In spite of this fantastic treatment the poem became imme- 
diately popular. Its merits were quickly recognized. It 
contained, to cite Dean Church, " passages of poetical elo- 



EDMUND SPENSER. 



quence, of refined vigor, and of musical and imaginative 
sweetness, such as the English language had never attained to 
wince the days of him who was to that age what Shaks- 
peare and Milton are to ours, the pattern and fount of 
poetry, Chaucer." It was so highly esteemed that for sev- 
eral years it was praised by many as the " reputed work of 
Sir Philip Sidney," albeit its real authorship was well- 
known to Spenser's friends and patrons. And at a later 
date, Dry den, in dedicating his translation of Virgil, said 
that the "Shepherd's Calendar" " is not to be matched in any 
language." 

Perhaps if Spenser had never written his "Fairy Queen," his 
"Shepherd's Calendar" would have stood higher than it does 
in the estimation of modern readers. But as is the sun to 
a star, so is the former to the latter work, and most readers, 
poets and critics excepted, are now content to study Spen- 
ser's genius as they find it embodied in the melodious stan- 
zas of the " Fairy Queen." 

Spenser, though he won reputation as the " new poet," did 
not build hopes of large profit upon the sale of his poem. The 
time had not arrived which made it possible for even a poet of 
the highest rank to make literature a means of support. What 
he hoped to gain by it besides reputation was such recog- 
nition by men in power as would secure his appointment to 
some honorable and profitable office. He appears to have 
so far won attention as to be named in connection with sev- 
eral appointments at home and abroad. Shortly after the 
appearance of his poem, Lord Grey, probably on the recom- 
mendation of Sir Philip Sidney, made him his Secretary, and 
took him to Ireland, whither he went to iill the office of Lord 
Deputy. Ireland was then as it is now, " a bleeding ulcer " 
to England, an "unquiet land" incapable of self-government 
and determined not to submit to be ruled peacefully by its 
Saxon neighbor. Nevertheless it was regarded as a placer 
by many English noblemen and their needy dependants, in- 



EDMUND SPENSER. 



asmuch as its frequent rebellions led to the confiscation of 
many large estates belonging to rebel leaders, and to their 
distribution among the servants of the crown who happened 
to be in office there when such confiscations took place. No 
doubt Spenser so regarded his appointment. Though unde- 
sirable in itself, it might lead, first to his enrichment by uift 
of lands, and then to some office near the throne more suited 
to his taste and more gratifying to his ambition. 

We have now to view our poet, no longer sitting beneath 
the oaks at beautiful Penshurst and conversing at his ease 
with " Master Philip Sidney, worthy of all titles both of 
learning and of chivalry," nor mingling occasionally in the 
courtly train of Leicester, at Elizabeth's splendid court, but 
in a land devastated by war. Ireland was then in the throes 
of the celebrated Desmond's rebellion. Lord Grey found it 
necessary to employ the sword shortly after his arrival. 
Nature had given this commander a tender and benevolent 
heart, but Irish hatred, treachery, ferocity, and savagery 
soon transformed him into a Tamerlane. Though a relig- 
ious man and a Puritan, he soon reached the cruel con- 
clusion that the only solution of English rule over Ireland 
was the devastation of the rebellious provinces, the hanging 
of its rebellious chiefs, the shooting or expulsion of its peas- 
antry, and the gift of its lands to English gentlemen with 
the understanding that they would bring laborers from En- 
gland to cultivate them. Acting on this conviction, he used 
the sword and the hangman's rope unsparingly. He sincerely 
believed that in thus extirpating rebels and papists he was 
doing God service; and Spenser, who must have attended 
him as his Secretary, in his military movements, despite his 
poetic sentiment and apparent gentleness, grew so hard in 
feeling as to see in Lord Grey, not the cruel soldier, but the 
type of the chivalric man, the loyal patriot, the zealous and 
faithful Christian. To us in these more humane times it 
seems passing strange that even Irish barbarism could have 



ED M VXD SPENSER. 



led such men as Grey and Spenser to adopt such opinions 
and to approve such wholesale cruelties. 

Amid these scenes of slaughter Spenser's fortunes im- 
proved. In addition to his secretaryship he was given the 
office of Clerk in the Irish Court of Chancery. He was 
granted a lease of the Abbey of Enniscorthy, worth over 
§1,500 per annum, which he soon sold to another gentleman, 
and, subsequently to Lord Grey's return to England, he was 
appointed Clerk of the Council of Minister. He also re- 
ceived a gift of 3,028 acres of land, with its manor and 
castle of Kilcolman, in the county of Cork. This was part 
of the forfeited estate of the rebel Earl of Desmond, and 
was granted on the usual condition, that Spenser should 
reside on the estate and improve it. Hence, after receiving 
this gift Spenser took up his residence in the castle, and led 
the life of a country gentleman, yet devoting much of his 
time to the more congenial employment of cultivating his 
poetic gifts. The surrounding scenery at Kilcolman was 
not without much natural beauty, but it could scarcely be 
called a peaceful abode, since it was subject to many incur- 
sions of the revengeful peasants still harboring in the adja- 
cent woods and bogs, and its owner was compelled to be 
cognizant of their wretchedness. In one of his later poems 
he contrasts the peaceful abodes of the more fortunate land 
of his birth with his Irish home in these expressive lines: 

'"No wailing there, no wretchedness is heard; 

No bloody issues, nor no leprosies ; 
No grisly famine, nor no raging sword; 

No nightly ravages, nor no hue and cries. 
The shepherds there abroad may safely lie 

On hills and downs withouten dread or danger; 
No ravenous wolves the good man's hope destroy, 

Nor outlaws fell assault the forest ranger." 

Sir Walter Raleigh, whom Dean Church calls " the glory 
and shame of English manhood," had served in Munster as 
captain under Lord Grey. He was rewarded for his military 



10 EDMUND SPENSER 

services with a grant of large estates taken from Desmond's 
confiscated property. Having lost favor at court, this great 
and knightly adventurer crossed the channel to look after 
his interests in Ireland. While thus engaged he visited 
Spenser at Kilcolman Castle. The poet had then written at 
least three books of his "Fairy Queen;" and when he had 
the good fortune to have Raleigh at his own fireside, he 
read him parts of his work. Raleigh, himself a poet, per- 
ceived the wondrous beauty, the exceeding merit of the 
poem. " You must carry it to England," he exclaimed. 
" You must read it to our mighty queen." Perhaps in giv- 
ing this counsel he had his own as well as Spenser's interests 
in view, thinking possibly that he might recover the favor 
of his offended mistress by introducing such an unequaled 
production to her notice. 

Advice which harmonizes with one's ambition is readily 
followed. Spenser, who desired above all things to win 
preferment in England, accepted Raleigh's counsel, accom- 
panied him to England, published as much of his poem as he 
had written, and was graciously permitted to read portions 
of it on several occasions to the queen. Her penetration 
enabled her to see its merits. Her vanity was flattered by 
its fulsome praises, since it attributed to her an array of 
physical, mental, moral, and queenly qualities far exceeding 
what she actually possessed. But she was so accustomed to 
the incense of flattery that she probably accepted the poet's 
laudations as just tributes to her greatness. She gave ex- 
pression to her apjjrobation by ordering her treasurer to 
give Spenser a hundred pounds. 

This gift was encouraging. But the poet found that he 
had a powerful enemy at court in the person of Burleigh, 
the queen's treasurer. Burleigh probably had no enmity to 
Spenser's person, though he had a profound contempt for 
poets in general, whom he scornfully designated " ballad- 
makers." But Spenser's most powerful friends, Leicester 



EDMUND SPENSER. 11 

and Sidney, were now dead. Raleigh belonged to a party 
hostile to Burleigh, and therefore it seemed impolitic to the 
treasurer to permit Spenser to ingratiate himself with the 
queen, lest his advancement should benefit his political op- 
ponents. Besides this Spenser, in his "Shepherd's Calen- 
dar," had reflected on Burleigh's treatment of his old patron, 
Grindal. These prejudices, it appears, led him to keep the 
queen's order unpaid until one day the poet, weary of wait- 
ing, presented the queen with a paper containing these lines: 

" It pleased your Grace upon a time 
To grant me reason for my rhyme ; 
But from that time until this season 
I heard of neither rhyme nor reason." 

Whereupon her majesty, offended by her treasurer's neg- 
lect, commanded him to make immediate payment. But 
he, objecting to the largeness of the sum, she retorted, 
" Then give him what is reason ? " Whereupon it was set- 
tled that henceforth Spenser should receive a pension of 
fifty pounds a. year, a sum equivalent to more than five times 
that amount in these modern times. 

This moderate gift did not, of course, fill his high expecta- 
tions, and he lingered around the court for nearly two years 
vainly waiting appointment to some lucrative office. At 
last, disgusted with long waiting, in 1591 he returned to his 
Irish home. The bitterness of his disappointment at court 
is strongly and beautifully expressed in the following lines, 
written after his return : 

" Full little knowest those who hast not tried 
What hell it is in suing lomr to bide; 
To lose good days that might be better spent ; 
To waste long nights in pensive discontent; 
To speed to-day, to be put off to-morrow ; 
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; 
To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peers'; 
To have thy asking, yet wait many years; 
To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares; 
To eat thy heart in comfortless despairs; 



12 EDMUND SPENSER. 

To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run ; 
To spend, to give, to wait, to be undone- 
Unhappy wight, born to disastrous end, 
That doth his life in so long tendance spend ! " 

Spenser had not spent all his time in place-hunting while 
in England, but had written, or revised for publication, 
several minor poems, such as " The Ruins of Time," " The 
Tears of the Muses," " Virgil's Gnat," " Mother Hubbard's 
Tale," " The Fate of the Butterfly," etc. After resuming 
the care of his Irish estate he wrote a description of his 
sojourn in England, under the pastoral title of "Colin Clout's 
Come Home Again." In 1592 he became enamored of a 
lady named Elizabeth, of whom little is known, except that 
she lived " near the sea," was probably a well-bred woman 
of good birth, and that, after frequent refusals to marry 
him during a courtship lasting more than a year, she finally 
consented to become his bride. They were married at Cork 
in the spring of 1594. Of the bride's motive in accepting 
him nothing is known, but on Spenser's part this was a mar- 
riage inspired by an affection which stirred his sensitive 
nature to its lowest depths. His courtship he celebrated in 
his " Amoretti," a series of sonnets, says Christopher North, 
" overflowing with all love's tenderest fancies." His match- 
less " Epithalamion," in which he celebrates his marriage, has 
never been excelled by the nuptial song of any other poet in 
any land. 

Before his marriage he appears to have finished three 
more books of his "Fairy Queen," which issued from the 
press in 1596. These were all of that great poem he lived 
to complete. After his marriage he wrote his " View of the 
State of Ireland," which illustrates his capacity for states- 
manship, but shows that, like most Englishmen of his own 
and of later times, he saw no better mode of keeping that 
turbulent land in subjection than by the strong hand and a 
free use of the sword. 

His poem on the marriage of two noble ladies, and four 



EDMUND SPENSER. 13 



hymns on Love and Beauty, were published in 1596. They 
contain " splendid examples of the power of verbal harmo- 
ny." Two years later an insurrection broke out in Munster. 
In their rage the insurgents swept like an irresistible flood 
over the province, raiding the estates which had been given 
to Englishmen. Kilcolman Castle was seized, the poet's 
goods pillaged, and his residence burned. In the confusion 
of a hasty flight he and his wife were compelled to leave 
their infant child behind. Their merciless foes suffered the 
innocent creature to perish in the flames. Almost penniless, 
with no means of support but his pension, Spenser fled with 
his wife to England. Three months later he died at an ob- 
scure inn in Westminster, on the 16th of January, 1599, as 
some believed, of a broken heart caused by these terrible 
misfortunes. His death caused quite a sensation in London. 
The Earl of Essex provided means for his funeral, and his 
remains were interred with befitting honors in Westminster 
Abbey, near the burial place of Chaucer. 

In dedicating his "Fairy Queen" to Elizabeth, Spenser, 
with a foresight arising from a self -consciousness unpar- 
donable except to a man of real genius, had predicted that 
his work would " live with the eternity of her fame." His 
prophecy is likely to become fact, in that it is probable the 
world will not let his memory die. His works will be read, 
especially by poets, whose poet he was and is, as long as the 
English language is* spoken and its literature is esteemed an 
instrument of intellectual and moral culture. But his works, 
not excepting his inimitable " Fairy Queen," will never be 
popular with general readers. Though their conceptions of 
the beautiful in nature and character are unsurpassed ; 
though " the soul of their reader is taken captive by the con- 
cord of sweet sounds, and thought is dissolved into raptur- 
ous feeling by long-drawn strains of sweet music," yet the 
characters and incidents are so unreal, their ideas so dis- 
cordant and incongruous, their structure so artificial and 



14 EDMUND SPENSER. 

inartistic, and their language so affected and obsolete, that 
their readers will be limited to such as have patience to 
work their way, by diligent study of their separate parts, 
into familiarity with their style and spirit, and taste suf- 
ficient to discern and relish their grace, sweetness, and poetic 
richness. To the popular mind their language will always 
be an embarrassment to their study. Ben Jonson said of 
Spenser's passion for old, obsolete, clipped, and modified 
words, that "in affecting the ancients he writ no language;" 
and Craik, his more modern biographer, remarks, "his abun- 
dance is often oppressive; it is like wading among unmown 
grass." 

Nevertheless, all who seek a fairly comprehensive knowl- 
edge of English literature will take pains to read at least 
the first three books of his " Fairy Queen," if nothing more. 
There is no internal connection between the books of this 
really beautiful poem. Each book aims to illustrate a single 
virtue embodied in a leading character, as, for example, Ho- 
liness is personified by the Red Cross Knight, in the first 
book ; Temperance by Sir Guy on, in the second ; Chastity 
by Britomartis, in the third, etc. Numerous historical per- 
sonages are also represented in the poem, such as Queen 
Elizabeth by Gloriana, Belphcebe, Britomart, Cynthia, etc. ; 
Mary Queen of Scots by Duessa and Florimel; Sir Walter 
Raleigh by Timias, Lord Grey by Sir Arthogal, etc. Yet 
there is no thread binding its parts into a complete whole, 
no plot to excite expectation, nothing to prevent each book 
being studied and enjoyed by itself. The leading charac- 
teristics of this and his other poems are summed up by Dean 
Church as being: 1, A quaint stateliness of Spenser's imag- 
inary world and its representatives; 2, the beauty and mel- 
ody of his numbers, the grace of his ornaments, the haunting 
rhythm of many of his passages ; 3, the intrinsic nobleness 
of his aim, his high ethical principles and ide.ils, his honor 
for all that is pure, brave, unselfish, and tender in human 



EDMUND SPENSER. 15 

nature. Shadowy and incomplete as are his characters, the 
truths they embody are "too real and too beautiful to lose 
their charm with time." 

As to Spenser himself, one pities him, but cannot feel 
very strongly drawn toward him. The chief aim of his life 
appears to have been the attainment of office and wealth 
that would raise him to the level of the more fortunate 
branches of his ancient family. Yet, to his credit be it said 
that, except in the incense of false, fulsome flattery, which 
he burned so freely on the altars of royalty and aristocracy, 
he seems not to have sacrificed either his principles or honor 
to his aims. Perhaps for his flatteries the fashion of the 
times must be held largely accountable. What his religious 
life was is unknown. Politically he inclined to Puritanism, 
but had little sympathy with its ascetic and religious sides. 
The Court of Elizabeth, with its magnificent displays and 
high-born chevaliers, was the Eden of his imagination. He 
made few friends, but those few were the most brilliant men 
of his time— Leicester, Sidney, Raleigh, and Grey. His 
nature, despite his brilliant imagination and sentimental 
worship of moral ideas, was at the bottom hard and selfish 
as the fewness of his friendships and his cordial approval 
of Lord Grey's cruel Irish policy seem to prove. His pas- 
sions do not appear to have been strong enough to make the 
practice of external virtue difficult; nor were his religious 
convictions sufficiently deep to lead him to an experimental 
knowledge of Him " whom to know is life eternal." He 
sought reputation as a means of winning courtly honors and 
lordly wealth. He won the former, but, missing the latter, 
died a poor man; and though his monument is among En- 
gland's mightiest dead, and his name in the mouth of the 
world, yet his unhappy life, chiefly characterized by unsatis- 
fied ambitions, suggests to every thoughtful mind the say- 
ing of Solomon, " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity ! " 



1G EDMUND SPENSER. 



USEFULNESS OF PURE POETRY. 

I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will open my dark 
saying on the harp. 

Poetry is a speaking picture, and pictures a mute poesy. 
They both invent, feign, and desire many things, and accom- 
modate all they invent to the use and service of nature. 
Yet of the two the pen is more noble than the pencil ; for 
that can speak to the understanding ; the other but to the 
sense. — Ben Jonson. 

I speak of the things which I have made touching the 
King: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. 

Pie who would not be frustrated of his hope to write well 
hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true 
poem. — Milton. 

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. 

It behooves us not to be wanting to ourselves in forward- 
ing the intention of nature by the culture of our minds.— 
Berkeley. 

Spenser leads us to Milton, and thence to Puritanism, as 
Plato to Virgil. Sensuous beauty is perfect in both, but 
their main worship is for moral beauty. — H. A. Taine. 

It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand 
a good one. — Montaigne. 

After my reading a canto of Spenser two or three days 
ago to an old lady between seventy and eighty, she said that 
I had been showing her a collection of pictures. She said 
very right. — Pope. 

The genius of Spenser is essentially pictorial. — Professor 
Shaw. 



[thought outline to help the memoey.] 

1. Birth-year? Place? Parents? Patrons and friends at the University? 

Translations ? 

2. Bachelor's degree ? Master of Arts ? In Lancashire ? Rosalind ? 

3. The age and its inspirations \ Elizabeth ? St. Bartholomew's Day ? Sidney ? 

Leicester? Maiden poem? Ireland? Clerk in Chancery. Gift of land '. 
Visit from Sir Walter Raleigh? The Queen's gift ? An enemy at Court i 
" Fifty pounds a year ? " Disappointment ? 

4. Poems? Elizabeth "near the sea?" Marriage? 

5. "Fair Queen?" Insurrection in Munster? Death? Characteristics of the 

Fairy Queen ? Aims of his life ? Religion ? 



OXI^TXT^TTQTT_A_ TEXT-BOOKS. 



No. 1. Bihlical Exploration. A Con- 
densed Manual on How to Study the 
Bible. By J. H. Vincent, D.D. Full 
and rich 10 

No. 2. Studies of the Stars. A Pocket 
Guide to the Science of Astronomy. 
By H. W. Warren, D.D 10 

No. 3. Bible Studies for Little People. 
By Rev. B. T. Vincent .. 10 

No. 4. English History. By J. H. Vin- 
cent, D.D 10 

No. 5. Greek History. By J. H. Vin- 
cent, D.D 10 

No. 6. Greek Literature. By A. D. 
Vail, D.D 20 

No. 7. Memorial Days of the Chautau- 
qua Literary and Scientific Circle. ... 10 

No. 8. What Noted Men Think of the 
Bible. By L. T. Townsend, D.D. 10 

No. 9. William Cullen Bryant 10 

No. 10. What is Education? By Wm. 
F.Phelps, A.M 10 

No. 11. Socrates. By Prof. W. F. Phelps, 
A.M .„ 10 

No. 12. Postaiozzi. Bv Prof. W. F. 
Phelps, A.M 10 

No. 13. Anglo-Saxon. By Prof. Albert 
S. Cook 20 

No. 14. Horace Mann. By Prof. Wm. 
F. Phelps. A.M 10 

No. 15. Frcebel. By Prof. Wm. F. 
Phelps, A.M 10 

No. 16. Roman History. Bv J. H. Vin- 
cent, D.D 10 

No. 17. Roger Ascham and John Sturm. 
Glimpses of Education in the Six- 
teenth Century. By Prof. Wm. F. 
Phelps, A.M 10 

No. 18. Christian Evidences. By J. H. 
Vincent, D.D 10 



No. 19. The Book of Books. By J. M. 

Freeman, D.D 10 

No. 20. The Chautauqua Hand-Book. 

By J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 

No. 21. American History. By J. L. 

Hurlbut, A.M 10 

No. 22. Biblical Biology. By Rev. J. 

H. Wythe, A.M., M.D 10 

No. 23. English Literature. By Prof. 

J. H. Gilmore 20 

No. 24. Canadian History. By James 

L. Hughes 10 

No. 25. Self-Education. By Joseph Al- 

den, D.D., LL.D 10 

No. 26. The Tabernacle. By Rev. John 

C.Hill 10 

No. 27. Headings from Ancient Classics. 10 
No. 28. Manners and Customs of Bible 

Times. By J. M. Freeman, D.D 10 

No. 29. Man's Antiquity and Language. 

By M. S. Terry, D.D. ." 10 

No. 30. The World of Missions. By 

Henry K. Carroll 10 

No. 31. What Noted Men Think of 

Christ. By L. T. Townsend, D.D. . . . 10 
No. 32. A Brief Outline of the History 

of Art. By Miss Julia B.De Forest.. 10 
No. 33. Elihii Burritt: "The Learned 

Blacksmith." By Charles Northend. 10 
No. 34. Asiatic History: China. Corea, 

Japan. Bv Rev. Wm. Elliot Griffls.. 10 
No. 35. Outfines of General History. 

Bv J. H. Vincent, D.D Id 

1 No. 36. Assembly Bible Outlines. By 

J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 

No. 37. Assembly Normal Outlines. By 

J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 

No. 38. The Life of Christ. By Rev. 

J. L. Hurlbut, M.A 10 

No. 39. The Sunday-School Normal 

Class. By J. H. Vincent, D.D 10 



Published by PHILLIPS & HUNT, 805 Broadway, New York. 



OCT 5" 1950 








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